The Second Task
by Lovely-pixels
Summary: "And hour long you'll have to look,and to recover what we took…Your time's half gone, so tarry not, lest what you seek stays here to rot…" Set in The Goblet of Fire, Possible Part 2 if you review!


_Beginning paragraph or so taken from the book, mix of movie and book quotes and also usage of pottermore references. _ _Don't own anything!_ _Please leave a review if you like!_

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><p><em><strong>"And hour long you'll have to look,<strong>  
><strong>And to recover what we took…<strong>  
><strong>Your time's half gone, so tarry not<strong>  
><strong>Lest what you seek stays here to rot…"<strong>  
><em>

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><p>Harry swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Harry swam past the mersong.<br>A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Harry saw faces…faces that bore no resemblance to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom….The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick dark ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.

Harry sped up, kicking his webbed feet quickly as he went, looking around as the dwellings grew in numbers, some with yards, some with gardens of weed in the front, and a few even had a pet grindylow tide to a stake outside their doors. Merpeople were emerging out of their homes now, gathering in small groups to point and look at his webbed hands and feet, talking behind their own hands and that's when Harry noticed their pointed nails, the same colour as their teeth.

He followed the 'road' of smooth sand, to where choir of merpeople where singing the champions towards them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue of a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people where bounded to the tail of the statue with a thick rope of seaweed.

Hermione was the first one he noticed, her hair was wild and resembled a lion. Beside her was Cho Chang, her sopping wet black hair made her appear even paler than normal. He saw long blonde strands and that's when he noticed the girl who couldn't be older than eight, and he could safely bet that was Fleur Delacour's sister. Then he noticed the platinum blonde locks, short and sweet swaying in the water. Draco.

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><p><em>The night before…<em>

"Dray, none of this is helpful unless I can find some way to hold my breath under water for an hour." The Gryffindor huffed, running a hand through his shaggy hair, before leaning his elbow on the table, looking over the 'Encyclopedia of Toadstools' book Hermione recommended before she went to work on her essay. He looked over all the fungi and looking for anything that could help him under water.

"I'm just trying to help." Draco said defensively, he didn't like when his boyfriend got frustrated, especially when he couldn't do anything about it. He walked over to Harry from the other side of the isle of books. "Look, I'll talk to Severus….maybe he'll help." He said softly, kissing the raven haired boys unruly locks. Harry sighed and nodded.

"Thank you." Harry said softly, taking his hand and smiling as Draco laced their fingers and squeezed his hand. "I'll see you at dinner." Draco murmured before he leaned down, kissing Harry gentle with a gentle 'mwah' sound. Harry nodded with a smile. "Of course." He whispered.

Harry waited till Draco was gone before he got up, putting away the books, and nearly jumping out of his skin when Neville popped up in the isle. "Oh, Hi Harry." He said with a smile. Harry took a deep breath before he nodded a hello. Neville put away his book before noting what the other Gryffindor had been reading.

"Great Lake Pants? Does this have to do with tomorrows task?" The big eared teen asked, and Harry nodded. "Yeah." Harry said as he put the last book away, only for it to fly out of the spot and into the correct one. "You know, if you're interested in plants, you should use 'Goshawk's Guide to Herbology'. There's someone in Tibet who's growing gravity resistant trees." Neville said happily, almost giddy to be talking about plants.

"Neville, no offense, but I really don't care about plants. Now, if there's a Tibetan turnip that will help me breathe underwater for an hour, great. But otherwise..." Harry trailed off with a shrug, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I don't know about turnips, but you could always use gillyweed." Neville supplied and Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

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><p><em>With Draco…<em>

Draco smiled as he walked out of the library, his hands in his pockets as he made his way to his godfathers office, when he was stopped by Professor McGonagall.

"Oh, Mister Malfoy, thank goodness, I was just going to the library to find you, Dumblrdor needs to see you in his office right away." She said simply. "Oh…Okay professor but, I need to speak to Professor Snape first." He said simply. "Professor Snape is in Professor Dumbledors office." She said before she placed a hand on the blonde boys shoulder and led him to the office.

When they reached the entrance she recited the password and then led him up the stairs. He walked into the room and looked around. Cho Chang, Hermione and a little girl were all sitting down, looking at him, only Hermione offered a smile and he took a seat beside her. "What's going on?" He asked.

"Tomorrow, the second task will take place….and we need you four to take part in it." Dumbledor explained with a sort of smile. "How?" Hermione asked and Draco nodded along, wanting more information.

"Tomorrow the task will involve the champions, in the black lake for an hour. They'll have an hour to locate you and return you to the surface. If you agree, you'll be in the protection of the merpeople, under a potion. Completely safe." He said, and Draco felt like something was missing but, if it meant something to help Harry, he would do it.

"I'm in." Draco said simply, and Cho, Hermione and then the little girl all agreed. Draco looked at Snape, only now noticing the head of his house behind him. "Uh...Professor Snape? I need to talk to you about something." He said before he stood. Dumblrdor allowed it but only in the permits of his office.

"Severus, I need something for Harry, anything." He pleaded quietly. "I'm sorry Draco but, maybe Mister Potter shouldn't leave things to the last minute…besides, I'm not allowed to help." Said the Professor. Draco huffed. "Can I at least go talk to him? I promised him I'd help him after dinner."

"Oh, Mister Malfoy, you misunderstood, none of you are to be with anyone from your house, or your school, except you're the head of your house." Dumbledor said simply. "What?" Draco hissed, walking back to where he once sat. "If you were to leave, you would be able to tell Mister Potter, and he would know what the task was." The headmaster added and Draco huffed.

_**Just wait till my father hears about this… **_

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><p><em>Back in the lake…<em>

Harry swam forward, grasping at his lovers slimey rope before he looked around for something to cut it with, he looked down, diving down and grabbing a rock with a jagged edge before he swam up to cut the rope, swimming up and cupping his cheek to make sure he was still alive, the little bubbles coming from his nose proved it. He was about to swim up, noticing that when he was cutting Draco free Cedric had gotten Cho, and that's when he heard a scream.

A shark like creature, half human, swam forward and bit Hermione's rope off, dragging her to the surface. Harry waited for a moment, waiting for Fleur to show up. A minute passed and he let go of Draco, swimming to the girl to free her, gasping when the merpeople hissed at him, holding the spear up to him. "Only one." They hissed.

He swam back to Draco, looking around once more before he took Dracos arm, and then whipped out his wand, pointing it at the rope on the child before he fired out sparks, the merpeople scattered, he swam over, and grabbed the girls arm aswell before he began to swim to the surface.

He was almost there, but a pain was boiling inside. The gillyweed was wearing off and it was awful. His hands were going back to normal and so were his feet, slowing him down immensely. Worst though, was the fact that his gills were gone. He huffed, hearing a squeal, he looked down to see a mob of grindylow coming straight for him, grabbing on the fit feel and trying to pull him down. He pushed up the two blondes, before he began to struggle, checking for his gills and taking the last breath he could under water, before he cast the revulsion jinx at them, the boiling water stunning them so he could swim away. The blondes were at surface.

Harry looked up at the water, falling downward. The hour was up, and he was slowly fading, pointing his wand upward he gasped. "Ascendio," and he was being thrown upward, breaking the surface of the water and colliding with the hard deck, there was many gasps and he cough up water.

He sat up, and a towel was wrapped around him, along with Dumbledor steading him. Harry didn't pay attention to their words, his throat burned and was awfully dry somehow. He gasped himself when he had an armful of teen, smiling as he relaxed into Draco, kissing his head secretively. Only the Malfoys knew and the Hogwarts students and staff knew about them. The papers assumed they were best friends, and the new comers assumed they were together but no one dared to ask.

"Harry you git." Draco muttered. "You could've died." He added, pulling back to hit his arm. "What?" Harry sputtered, confused as to why he was upset. "I just saved you." He said and Draco sighed. "I guess that's okay, I hope you didn't waste time being the hero." He said simply.

"We've awarded Harry Potter, forty-five points, for extreme moral fiber and merit." Bagman announced and Harrys eyes widened, he looked at Ron and Hermione and then at his boyfriend. "You're tired for first." Draco gasped and hugged him again. Harry smiled and held him tightly.

**No matter what that last task was, he was ready, as long as Draco was by his side, he was safe. **

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><p><em>Please Review and I may do Part 2 of this and do the third task, or even add the first. I have an idea but I need to see how this turns out. <em>

_Thanks!_


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